Thursday, December 13, 2012

Week 15 Starters & Benchwarmers

Wondering whether or not to start
Ray Rice and Calvin Johnson, or to bench Brady Quinn and Braylon Edwards? The network bozos specialize in that kind of
advice. If you’re looking for help with your real
starting lineup conundrums, read on.

It’s playoff time!Here are my picks to roll, and get rolled, in
Week 15 of the 2012 season.

Watch ‘em roll

Josh Freeman, QB,
Buccaneers at Saints.Freeman had his
best game of the season in the first matchup between these division rivals (420
yards, 3 TDs), and he has continued to perform at a near-elite level since that
Week 7 outburst.Meanwhile, no team has
coughed up more passing TDs this year than New Orleans.

Mikel Leshoure,
RB, Lions at Cardinals.Though he’s
splitting carries nearly evenly with Joique Bell, Leshoure remains the lead
tailback, and Detroit’s best goal-line option.Facing an Arizona run defense that has been mauled by the Seahawks and
Jets over the past two weeks, Leshoure could be headed for an epic outing on
Sunday.

Alfred Morris, RB,
Redskins at Browns.No one will be
surprised if Robert Griffin III suits up for this contest, but Morris will
inevitably be leaned upon more heavily than usual in either event.RG3’s sprained knee will presumably limit his
mobility, leading to more carries for his fellow rookie against the subpar
Cleveland run defense.

Lance
Moore, WR, Saints vs. Buccaneers.He accumulated nine receptions for 121 yards
in Tampa Bay in Week 7.Look for similar
returns, including an end zone visit, for Moore against the league’s softest
pass defense.

Josh
Gordon, WR, Browns vs. Redskins.Cleveland is quietly riding a three-game win
streak, and Gordon has accumulated 18 receptions for 262 yards and one TD
during that span.The rookie speedster
now faces a Washington secondary that has surrendered an NFL-worst 27 passing
TDs (sharing the futility mark with New Orleans). Cha-ching!

Andrew Luck, QB,
Colts at Texans.The rookie has had a
stellar debut season, but he has not been a consistently reliable fantasy
passer.He’s coming off a mediocre
outing against Tennessee’s poor secondary, and now must take on a proud Texans
defense with a chip on its shoulder.Advantage, Houston.

Ryan Mathews, RB,
Chargers vs. Panthers.Though Carolina’s
run defense is below average, Mathews has been equally unimpressive. With just one TD to date (way back in Week 5),
he offers little upside to playoff teams gunning for a championship.

Vick Ballard, RB,
Colts at Texans.On the positive side,
Ballard is no longer competing for touches with Donald Brown, who has been
placed on injured reserve.But Andrew
Luck is a capable TD poacher in his own right.Meanwhile, Ballard will be facing the league’s second-ranked run defense
that was just humiliated by the Patriots on national television.With playoff seeding on the line, expect the
Texans to rebound strongly at home.

Larry Fitzgerald,
WR, Cardinals vs. Lions.How bad are
Arizona’s QBs?Over the past four weeks,
they have targeted their All Pro wideout 37 times, but have connected on just
six passes for a pathetic 67 yards.This
week, Ryan Lindley gets another opportunity to squander Fitzgerald’s
talents.Don’t even think about it.

Cecil Shorts, WR,
Jaguars at Dolphins.Shorts is on track
to return from the concussion that sidelined him in Week 14, but he’s a very
risky start against a pass defense that has held up well against the likes of
Tom Brady and Colin Kaepernick in recent weeks.Shorts won’t be 100 percent, while Chad Henne has cooled off
significantly since his Week 11 outburst.

Lions defense vs.
Cardinals.Looking for a boost from your
defense?It’s hard to imagine a tastier
matchup than the Lindley-led Cardinals, who made Seattle look like the Purple
People Eaters last Sunday.Detroit has
been a fantasy also-ran, but they have enough playmakers to do some damage
against the NFL’s JV squad.

DON’T BE THE BONEHEAD WHO…upsets your league’s competitive balance by dumping star
players after your season ends.That
happened in one of my leagues, where a non-playoff-bound team replaced his
entire roster with scrubs from the Jets.While I can appreciate the humor of a starting lineup featuring Tim
Tebow, Bilal Powell, Joe McKnight, Chaz Schilens, Stephen Hill and others,
waiving valuable starters that can materially affect postseason matchups is not
in keeping with the spirit of the game.

Welcome home, Fools!

2011 and 2010 Football Writer of the Year

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About the Chief Fool

Ladd Biro was named 2010 "Football Writer of the Year" by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association -- the most prestigious recognition in the biz. In 2011, he won again -- the only two-time winner in the FSWA's history. He also won for "Best Humor Column of 2011," across all sports. He was a finalist for the FFWOY Award again in 2013 and 2014, but was denied the threepeat in the kind of bribery/shakedown/ payola scandal more commonly associated with FIFA. Ladd's nationally syndicated columns have appeared in more than 20 publications -- including the Dallas Morning News, San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Sun-Times and Sporting News magazine -- since 2003. Since 2009, all his written fantasy content can be found on the Fantasy Fools blog.